L.A. in a Day—by Bike

By

Arnie Cooper

March 11, 2013 5:51 p.m. ET

West Hollywood, Calif.

Spring comes early to Southern California, but it's easy to miss while driving down Wilshire Boulevard in a climate-controlled car. That all changes on a bicycle, especially when you're grinding up the hills of Bel Air—passing more blooming magnolias than you'd ever imagine could thrive in a semidesert. Those flowering trees are not on any tourist map. But on a spectacular, 76-degree day in late February, they were one of the incidental pleasures of the "L.A. in a Day" bike tour. The...